Sabazius - Sympathy For The Devil

Right, no updates for a while 'cause I been busy with Xmas stuff like watching all of Babylon 5 in a row (only got half way through the 2nd season and >1 week of 2 weeks holiday, things not looking good for this mission) and general festivity. Fortunately some of my friends have been less idle over the holiday period. Once again the kindly folks known as Sabazius (i.e. Nev and Steve) have released a free MP3 single for you all to download. This one's a cover of Sympathy For The Devil by the Rolling Stones. I don't know the original so no idea what it's meant to sound like, but I'm guessing it's not 25 minutes of doom! Anyways, message from the band follows:

Merry Christmas from Sabazius!

As a free gift, we offer our cover version of the Rolling Stones classic, 'Sympathy for the Devil', from midnight (UK time) 25th December 2008 as a free download!

The zip file also contains a front cover designed by our good friend Smudge (cheers mate)! Click here to download.

Have a great Christmas, and remember to spare a thought for Satan this time of year!!

So there you have it. Might be a while before I post anything else, lots of Babylon 5 to get through!

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire

Sabazius at Myspace

The Menagerie - Wild Kingdom

The Menagerie were a Brighton based hip-hop collective who now seem to have become somewhat defunct. They released this one album, but never managed to finish off their 2nd though there are 4 tracks from the sessions on their Myspace player. The album features Nick Maxwell on the decks and the lyrical stylings of Dr Syntax and Elemental. They were joined by Koaste shortly after the recording of this album, and he also features on the newer tracks.

I discovered these guys through Elemental after stumbling across his Cup Of Brown Joy video on Youtube. I would also throughly recommend checking out Elemental and Mr Simmonds' album The Gentlemens Club which is available from Rarekind Records in Brighton, or on iTunes if you will stoop to such levels.

Anyways, the music is pretty chilled out and groovy Brighton hip-hop covering a variety of topics. Was listening to it the other day and my housemate wandered in and commented that it was a bit jazzy for me, so take from that what you will.

160Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire

The Menagerie at Myspace

sEAMOUNt - ntodrm

Don't know much about these guys, apart from that they are awesome! A fusion of many different metal styles, at times they remind of me Grand Magus, Black Sabbath/Ozzy Osbourne's solo stuff, NWOBHM bands like Blitzkrieg and there's even a bit of an AC/DC sound in there at points. I stumbled across them on one of my many bored wanderings through Myspace and was pleased to see that they had a link to download their album for free.

Lots of slow and heavy riffage, though more of a warm 70s sound than the usual heavy sludge, and some nice lead guitar and more up-tempo grooves. This is one album you really don't want to miss. These German doom mongers have produced one of the best albums I've heard this year.

256Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Mediafire

sEAMOUNt at Myspace

They also have a few covers as bonus tracks available in WAV format from Mediafire (they're pretty big)!

Don't Let It Bring You Down (originally by Neil Young)
Music (originally by Witchfinder General)

MOMt Records - Keep On Lovin'

MOMT Records are an independent label from Newbury in the UK. They specialise in unusual electronic music, particularly industrial rock, electro, IDM and ambient. MOMT seeks to fight back against the current pasteurised music scene filled with production-line indie rock bands whose image is more important than their music. They first came to my attention when they released an album called Replicate 01 , a tribute to my favourite band of all time Front Line Assembly featuring many of their artists.

MOMT have now been operative for 5 years, and to celebrate this they have released a free online compilation called Carry On Lovin'. Carry On Lovin' features a pretty representative mix of styles and genres, from the dirty industrial of Vultures and Audio War to the floaty ambient sounds of Gusto Extermination Fluid and Skink. Something for everyone!

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from MOMT.co.uk
128Kbps MP3 individual tracks via HTTP from Last.FM

MOMT Records official site
MOMT Records at Myspace

The Shizit - Live At Club Spirit

The Shizit were an industrial metal band from Seattle formed in 1999. Originally promoted through the now defunct MP3.com, they sought to challenge the way the music industry worked and bring underground sounds to the masses. They released two DAM CDs (MP3.com's CDs featuring the regular CD version of the tracks alongside high quality MP3 files), Evil Inside in 1999 and Script Kiddie in 2000. They then went on to release a full length album entitled Soundtrack For The Revolution, which saw releases on several different labels (all now defunct) including E115 Records (original release) and Alec Empire's Digital Hardcore before disbanding in 2002. Two other albums have now been released posthumously through Canadian online collective D-Trash Records, Remixed For The Revolution (2004) and Live At Club Spirit (2008).

Their sound is similar to Rabbit Junk (the frontman JP's current project), but heavier and more aggressive. I always described it as gabber metal due to the relentless beats and highly distorted kick sounds, a la gabber. The result is an impressive fusion of metal, industrial, punk, gabber, hip-hop, hardcore dance and many other genres that is full of energy and just doesn't let up!

Today's offering is one I only just discovered, a D-Trash re-release of the Live At Club Spirit recording. This show was originally posted on The Shizit's MP3.com page as individual tracks back in the days of dialup internet connections and thus is unfortunately only available in 128K MP3 format. The D-Trash release sees the original four tracks supplemented by three new remixes by SLIP and a cover of Ministry's Just One Fix originally found on an Industrial compilation from 2001 called Signal To Noise: Reinforced Industrial Hits, and later on Cleopatra's A Taste Of Sin compilation and An Industrial Tribute To Ministry.

128/192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Archive.org
128/192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rapidshare.com

The Shizit Militia (semi-official fansite)
The Shizit Fanbase at Myspace

Monsterworks - Spacial Operations

Monsterworks are a metal band originally from Palmerston North/Wellington, New Zealand and formed in 1996 and reformed in London in 2003. They mix a number of metal styles to form a highly technical breed of progressive metal, including elements of thrash, death and power metal. Information on them seems to be quite sparse, though their Encyclopaedia Metallum page discography lists 5 full length albums they have under their belts!

Spacial Operations is their 2007 offering, available for free from their website http://www.supermetal.net. It is one of those rare concept albums that has a sci-fi theme rather than fantasy, improves its standing in my eyes no end, even before listening to it! I've always been more of a sci-fi fan than fantasy, though most metallers seem to feel the other way. Having only found a few examples of sci-fi themed metal (Fear Factory's Obsolete and Iron Savior amongst others), I am always eager to discover more.

If you like any kind of metal, I'd thoroughly recommend downloading Spacial Operations. It's quite a varied album with some great riffs and beautiful guitar work, and of course it's free!

160Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Supermetal.net

Monsterworks Official Site
Monsterworks at Myspace

Rabbit Junk - Project Nonagon Part 1, The Struggle

Rabbit Junk are an industrial metal band with heavy punk, hip-hop and electro influences (apparently this is called hardclash) hailing from Seattle. They were formed in 2004 after the breakup of front man JP's previous project The Shizit (Myspace) , a brilliant gabber metal band who will be making appearances in these pages in the future. Rabbit Junk takes the raw energy of The Shizit and combines it with more advanced production technique, more melodic elements and a slightly punkier sound (not enough to be bad). With some catchy hooks, serious riffage and awesome sequencing there's something there for everyone!

Project Nonagon is an extension of Rabbit Junk's last album, This Life Is Where You Get Fucked. This Life Is Where You Get Fucked is a concept album in three parts: The Struggle, Ghetto Blasphemer and This Death Is Where You Get Life. The idea behind Project Nonagon is to release a 3 track EP to build on the themes of each of these parts. This first part is, obviously, the extension of The Struggle part of This Life...

192Kbps MP3 via HTTP from Rabbitjunk.com

Rabbit Junk Official Site
Rabbit Junk at Myspace

Sabazius

Today's offering is very much in a different vein than Hospital Of Death. Sabazius are a Brighton-based doom band who are possibly the slowest band I've ever heard! I think they're awesome, but I am kinda biased since they are my friends Nev and Steve's band. Slower than tectonic plate movements and heavy as said tectonic plates, they sound fucking evil. My favourite track so far is The Goat, which is available for purchase from Dead Pilot Records right here. It only costs £3.40 for 19 minutes of crushing doom, and the 3" CD in mini-DVD case looks really nice. Only 52 pressed, so get in there ASAP.

Anyways, they decided to post their debut self-titled album for free on the internets as it was taking them ages to find a label. The tracks are all available on Mediafire individually (a .rar of the whole album would be too big for free hosting providers, this is 2 hours 26 minutes of doom!), as linked below. Not sure what quality they're at 'cause I have a CD copy that Steve gave me and ripped directly from that myself. If the quality's not good enough I can post my rips on Rapidshare, or re-rip at 320K if anyone wants.

Occult
Death's Eternal Sleep
Terror Is Thy Name
XXIII

Sabazius at Myspace

Hospital Of Death - Beer, Bitches, Blood

Hospital of Death are a heavy metal band from Cheshire in the UK. They combine oldschool NWOBHM vocals and riffs with the speed and energy of the new-wave of thrash metal. Their debut album, Beer, Bitches, Blood, was allegedly 13 years in the making (though the band split up for 12 of those years). Originally formed to play their high school graduation party, the band promptly disbanded. However, they reformed at a band reunion party in 2006 and since then have been on a neverending mission to induce drinking and partying in all who listen to their music.

The album itself is a joyous celebration of thrash and NWOBHM, with tongue thoroughly in cheek throughout. From the opening track Enter The Hospital Of Death, a metal version of the Casualty theme tune, to the final track White The Lightning, this is a great metal album in a traditional vein that doesn't take itself too seriously. And of course, any album that features a cover of Lion's theme for Transformers The Movie could not fail to be awesome!

The album is available for free online from various sources.

160Kbps MP3 via .torrent for the album at Mininova
160Kbps MP3 via HTTP download from Mediafire
128Kbps MP3 via Last.FM, streaming or individual track downloads

If you really like them, you can buy a copy off the band in two different forms from their Myspace page. The first is the Official Band Bootleg version, consisting of the album recording on CD-R in best quality in a PVC wallet with cover & flyers, £1.00 delivered in the UK, £2.00 worldwide. The second is the Bands Own Copies version, an album recording on lightscribe CD-R (it has stuff on the front) at the best quality in a jewel case with all glossy covers, which apparently takes 2 hours to make! My copy arrived this morning, and I have to say it's well worth the princely sum of £3.00 that I paid for it.

HOD at Myspace